Suspected Port Harcourt serial killer, Gracious David West, has confessed that he had killed seven ladies and started his notorious act in Ikeja, Lagos before moving to Owerri in Imo State and Port Harcourt, Rivers State where he was eventually arrested.

West, 39, from Buguma in Asari-Toru local government area of Rivers State, confessed that in Port Harcourt, he killed five persons, one in Ikeja and another in Owerri and survived on the money he stole from the victims’ accounts by using their ATM cards.

PM News reports that he made the confession on Friday while being paraded at the Rivers State Police Headquarters in Port Harcourt.

The suspect, who broke down in tears while making the confession, told newsmen that he always feel an irresistible urge to kill but effort to seek spiritual deliverance from Christ Chosen Church and Salvation Ministries didn’t yield the desired result because he couldn’t secure accommodation to follow through.

On the motive behind his actions, he said:

“I don’t know what always come over me to kill. After I had killed, I would feel remorse and then I would cry. But after that, the irresistible urge to kill would come over me again. I killed alone.”

He also confirmed that he was a member of a cult group and an ex-militant rehabilitated by the Omega Power Ministry (OPM). After securing a job at the Federal University of Science and Technology Owerri, (FUTO), through the Church, West said he absconded with students’ properties.

“I was a member of the Degbam Cult group, I have since repented. I was not killing for any cult group. I just killed. I don’t know what always came over me to kill,” he said.

Asked how he had been surviving, he said:

“The first woman I killed in one of the hotels at Ikeja had about N85,000 in her account.

“Before I strangulated them after lovemaking, I would use knife to cut the hotel bedsheets into a semblance of a twine or rope which I used to bind their hands and feet. I used the knife also to threaten them. The kitchen knife was sold to me by an Aboki.

“I threatened that if my victims raised alarm I would kill them with the knife. Out of fear, they would keep quiet while I raised the volume of the television set in the hotel room to dwarf any noise. I never killed with the knife.”

West also revealed that before killing his victims he always insisted on knowing their account balance and ATM pins.

“After strangulating them, I would steal their ATM cards, empty their accounts from any nearby ATM machine and move on.

“It is not all the girls I slept with that I killed. I killed only whenever the irresistible urge to kill overwhelmed me. l don’t have a house. My mother died through poisoning from her mate and I am homeless. I sleep in hotels.”

The State Commissioner of Police, Mustapha Dandaura, said his insistence on hotels in the state to install Close-Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs), has yielded results.

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He said:

“The suspect is definitely not alone in these killings, though he has made useful confessions but the Command will go beyond his confessions to ensure that a conclusive end is achieved that serves the interest of Justice.”

He said so far three suspects are in Police custody and are being investigated in connection with these killings, assuring that they will be paraded soon as soon as investigations are concluded.

 

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